2005 was a massive year for Bullet For My Valentine. Not only did they put out their debut album The Poison, but the band toured extensively in the run-up, meeting many of their heroes and nabbing their first magazine covers. With the band revisiting that period on this year's Poisoned Ascendancy tour, Hammer caught up with BFMV frontman Matt Tuck to reflect on what it was like going from up-and-comers to the hottest metal band in Britain virtually overnight.
"Nothing compares to that 2004 - 2007 period," Tuck admits. "The 2005 Hammer awards [the Golden Gods] was the first time we rubbed shoulders with a lot of our heroes. I met Howard [Jones] of Killswitch Engage, Robb Flynn and Zakk Wylde, who came up to me after our set and gave me this massive pat on the back, saying ‘Fucking shredder!’ Wild! Those moments were fucking amazing, man."
Tuck goes on to admit that the band's confidence was a real asset at that point, as it allowed them to do things they'd struggle to think about even now.
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"We had to get on-stage and play with those fuckers!" he says with a laugh. "That terrifies me now, it didn’t terrify me back then though. If Hammer had an awards ceremony next year and asked us to perform, I’d be 100% like ‘No way, we’re not doing it’. In front of all those people we admire? No fucking way! But back then, we just didn’t give a fuck. We lapped up those moments and met lots of cool people."
Among those "cool people" were the bands that had inspired Bullet - and countless other metal bands - in the first place, including giants Metallica and Iron Maiden.
"We met Metallica backstage at Rock Am Ring in 2007. That was next level. We supported them and were in our dressing room backstage when the door flew open and Lars just came barging in. He’s like, ‘Hey, I’m Lars!’ and it’s like, fuck yeah you are! That was weird. He complimented us on our cover of Welcome Home (Sanitarium) which we’d done for Kerrang! And was super cool, offering to get us anything we needed.
“We'd toured with Iron Maiden in 2006," he continues. "That’s when we met Steve Harris. Some of his kids had said they were big Bullet fans so Steve asked if it was okay for them to say hi. We were just like, ‘Y-yes, Sir!’ They really took us under their wing, especially [manager] Rod Smallwood. He really looked after us."
Of course, it wasn't all star-struck moments. Tuck admits the band had their work cut out when supporting Maiden.
"Going up in front of an Iron Maiden crowd… It’s notoriously difficult," he acknowledges. "We just lapped it up and did our thing, but backstage we’d always know when it was almost time to go on because they would raise our backdrop and you’d hear the yawns from the arena. It was a baptism by fire, but Rod would stand side-stage every night helping us to focus and mentoring us. We did Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden… all on the back of The Poison. It’s like a fairytale. Someone should do a Bullet For My Valentine movie because nobody would believe the story of what happened to us.”
But while Bullet were undoubtedly living out their dreams, that didn't mean all tour experiences went smoothly. On tour in the US with Rob Zombie, Tuck had voiced some displeasure on the official Bullet For My Valentine message board. The band were summarily dropped from the tour.
“I had a bit of a moment," Tuck admits sheepishly. "I let my inner thoughts get the better of me and decided to vent publicly on the Bullet For My Valentine website. It was inexperience and naivety, and stupidity. But I was being truthful. Do I regret it? Absolutely, it was dumb.
"But I wanted to vent and share what the experience was like. A decision was made to boot us off. I took it on the chin and understood, though I did make another statement on our message board which I think could’ve been worded better. But being the type of guy I was back then and feeling a real sense of injustice, I told everyone exactly what I was feeling and it bit me in the ass."
There were some silver linings, however.
"I’m gutted it came to that, but what can you do? But because we’d been kicked off that tour, Axl Rose got in touch and offered us his tour [with Guns N' Roses] instead. So… It worked out okay! But I was an idiot and do apologise today.”
Bullet For My Valentine's North American tour starts on March 30. The band also play Welcome To Rockville, Mystic and Download festivals this summer. For the full list of dates, visit their official website.
